The present invention is a new and useful beverage container lid that allows opening and drinking therefrom without the generation of removable parts and without the need for external opening devices. Since the time of widespread acceptance of the pull-tab for opening beverage containers, efforts have been made to solve the undesirable aspect of these pull-tab lids; specifically, in their generation of dangerous and unsightly tabs after opening the lids. These tabs have been found to cause widespread environmental hazards to wild animals as well as posing hazards to people when such items are stepped on by bare feet. However, people in general have been unwilling to accept the use of external tools to open beverage lids, such as the formerly widespread beer can opener and thus the need for a unitary beverage container lid with no removable parts and no need for external tools had remained unanswered. The present invention is the solution to this problem by providing such a lid that is inexpensive and simple to manufacture.
The prior art inventions, since the initial development of the pull-tab beverage container lid, have been directed at beverage container lids to improve upon this pull-tab arrangement. None of these prior art inventions, however, anticipate the present invention, since none of them teach the generation of a drinking orifice along a radially projecting score line in a dome-shaped region of a beverage container lid.
More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,611, Palmer, teaches the generation of two openings in a can lid when the sidewall of the can is manually squeezed. By this patent's teachings, the lid is forced into a highly convex configuration in order to generate these openings in the can lid. The present invention, however, generates a unitary drinking orifice by depression of a generally dome-shaped lid into a generally concave configuration thereby causing the spreading apart of the lid along a radially projecting scored region. The present invention, therefore, does not require deformation of the sidewalls of the beverage container as taught by this prior art invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,746, Edwards, is another patent teaching the opening of a can lid without the generation of a removable part. However, this invention utilizes a generally rectangular indented central portion of a lid that is then raised above the surface of the remainder of the can lid to generate orifices in the can lid. This patent does not teach the present invention since it requires a pulling and not a pushing operation to generate the openings and also because the openings are not generated by the spreading apart of a radially projecting score line in a dome-shaped lid, but are generated by the rupture of wall seams connecting the generally rectangular indented portion of the lid to the remainder of the lid.
Other prior art patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,227,324 and 3,246,791, both Asbury, and 3,334,775 and 3,779,417, both Klein, disclose a technique for generating at least one drinking orifice in a can lid by depression of a scored region in the can lid. In all of these patents, the drinking orifice, or orifices, in the can lid are pre-scored in the lid and are not generated by the spreading apart of a radially projecting score line in a dome-shaped lid. Furthermore, all these prior art inventions generate a removable part that must be discarded or pushed into the beverage container. Both of these alternatives are, of course, undersirable from an environmental standpoint. Furthermore, some of these lids are objectionable from a health standpoint since they require drinking a beverage with a portion of a lid immersed therein that was previously exposed to outside contamination.
Thus, the present invention is a new and useful beverage container lid that generates a drinking orifice without the generation of removable parts and without the need for external devices. The use of a dome-shaped lid with a radially projecting score line terminating with an arcuate score line at the region of a sidewall connecting the dome-shaped portion of the lid to the beverage container is not taught or suggested by the prior art patents. In addition, the use of a centrally located button for depression of the dome-shaped lid is not taught or suggested by the prior art patents. Furthermore, the use of a pair of radially projecting ribs along the radially projecting score line, an arcuate rib along the arcuate score line, and a U-shaped rib substantially diametrically opposed to the radially projecting pair of adjoining ribs to strengthen and facilitate the generation of a drinking orifice is not taught or suggested by the prior art patents.